The Vault Regulars

Thursday, January 26, 2017

The weather forecast for my part of the woods was for a very cold night, increasing wind speed and a dull day. I wondered if the very cold night would result in a very cold morning and give a nice sunrise.
I was hopeful and went to check the batteries on the camera, got the warm gear out and set my mind to getting out early in time to get up my local hills and see what was happening.

Sheila was up as usual, pre the dawn of man. I think she goes and wakes up the lamp dousers. We still have gas lamps up 'ere. I got up at 6.30 and checked to see what time sunrise was. 8.03 am.

From home to the top would take me about 40 minutes walking and so timed my exit to correspond. It was bitterly cold but still. Glad i had my PHD Minimus on as well as a fleece and Marino wool baselayer.
Passing through the farms and greeting the guys setting up the cows in the milking parlour, they were a bit surprised to see me so early.

The sky was a dull pink and i was hoping that i wasn't going to miss the best of the colour. I sped up the pace and the legs were complaining. Beads of sweat left from under my hat, down my brow and ran down my face. Sweating is not good i thought as standing around in the cold is no fun but i needed to set the tripod and camera up.

Reaching the trig point and the monument to the fallen men of Royton the sun was still below the horizon. The sky unfortunately was getting no redder. The outlying towns of Manchester, Rochdale and Oldham were vaguely visible in the gloom and all around the periphery the cloud was growing.

Frost covered everything but it wasn't a hard frost by any means. A bit disappointing. I got the coffee out and felt the warm glow inside. My hands were soon feeling tingly and the gloves soon went back on. I pulled the balaclava over my nose.

The first sign of the sun came as a red line to the edge of the cloud at 8.05. It wasn't going to be a good sunrise. I moved around the summit to see if i could get a better location for the camera but the trees to the east were preventing a clear view. I was a bit disappointed as the two previous days had produced a reasonable sunrise. Typical.

Still, i was out and it was beautiful. There will be other days and the light is never the same as the sun rises. I enjoyed my 10k and here are a few photos i took.